Investigation as a way of peaceful settlement of international disputes

Abstract

The paper deals with investigation as one of the ways of peaceful settlement of international disputes. The author describes the concept of investigation/inquiry and the investigation/inquiry commission (education, composition, method of work, etc.) and, in particular, the application in practice. A recurrent cause of disputes is the fact that the concerned parties have different views of essential elements of an event. In this regard, the investigation/inquiry may appear in a double role – many times it is just one of prior stages before turning to another way of peaceful settlement, but in some cases it may itself lead to the conclusion of the dispute. In this regard, although the investigation still has certain advantages (flexibility and opportunity to consider various issues, which is carried out by bodies consisting of members of necessary expertise), ever more frequently it appears as just one of the first steps in the dispute resolving process. Once the facts have been determined, usually the dispute is definitively resolved in direct negotiations, or in some other way. This is understandable for several reasons. Among other things, experts are competent to review the technical side of the problem, but have neither political insight into the relations between states, nor juristic and other broader knowledge necessary for the definite settlement of the dispute. In addition, in the world that has long since become a “global village”, interests of the states are largely interwoven, and consequently many disputes need to be resolved on a broader basis. After all, investigation/inquiry is not suitable for all cases. It is not helpful where it is not the facts that are disputable, but (also) something else (e.g. interpretation of a standard), same as, on the other hand, it is almost certain that the states will not leave to the investigation/inquiry commission to resolve the dispute which encroaches on their essential interests.